Chicago, Illinois
Past Events
Kabul Beauty School Event
Monday, June 9 at 5:30 p.m.
The UNIFEM/USNC Chicago Chapter invites you to hear Deborah Rodriguez, author and hairdresser, as she talks about her book, Kabul Beauty School, on June 9, 2008, at the InterContinental Hotel in downtown Chicago.
As it turned out, the Taliban had closed the city's hair salons, and the demand for haircuts was huge. Eventually Deborah Rodriguez ran both a salon and a nonprofit beauty school in Kabul that helped hundreds of women learn life-sustaining skills and gain economic independence. With beauty school skills, many women have been able to increase their income 10 to 20 times. And because men are not allowed to see uncovered women in Afghan society, this is the one and only industry in the country that women can own and operate without male influence.
Deborah Rodriguez spent five years teaching and later directing the Kabul Beauty School, the first modern beauty academy and training salon in Afghanistan. She also owned the Oasis Salon and the Kabul Coffee House. Rodriguez had to flee Kabul in May 2007 and now lives in Northern California. Her book, Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil, coauthored with Kristin Ohlson, is a New York Times bestseller and has been optioned by Columbia Pictures. Now in paperback, it will be available for purchase and signing at the program.
5:30 p.m. Cash bar reception
6 p.m. Presentation and discussion
7:15 p.m. Book signing and cash bar reception
InterContinental Hotel
505 North Michigan
Chicago, IL 60611
Members $20 (The Chicago Council on Global Affairs has generously extended the membership price to UNIFEM members and friends.)
Please click here to register
RemeMber to check member price, then indicate in the "Comments" field at the end that you received the invitation via UNIFEM.
UNIFEM Potluck Picnic in Millennium Park
Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 5:30pm
Please join UNIFEM/USA Chicago Chapter's Annual Potluck Picnic. This year's
them is "Take a Friend to the Orchestra," and it will be a great chance
to socialize for a good cause!
Where: Grant Park Music Festival
205 East Randolph Drive, Chicago, IL 60601
Learn more about our organization and bring your favorite dish or drink
(alcohol is fine!) to share -- and don't forget your picnic blanket -- while
we listen to popular favorites by Wagner, Mozart, Debussy, Rossini, Barber
and Respighi.
UNIFEM/USNC Chicago Premiere of "Beyond Belief"
with post-screening discussion with director Beth Murphy
Wednesday, March 5 at 6pm
From the ashes of the World Trade Center to Kabul, two widowed American women leave their suburban homes and reach out to the most desperate villages in Afghanistan. In the process, they discover unlikely kinship with widows halfway around the world and a profound way to move beyond tragedy. Find out more about the "Beyond Belief" documentary, its director Beth Murphy and Principle Pictures.
Beyond Belief tells one of the most unique and moving stories to come out of 9/11. Every American who advocates killing in the names of the people who died that day should see it. For the rest of us, it's a sobering look at a country in crisis and an emotional journey taken with two awe-inspiring women." -- Daniel Holloway, Metro International.
This event was generously sponsored in part by the Jerome H. Stone Family Foundation.
|
Among those at the March film screening at the Sofitel Hotel in downtown Chicago were, from left, Lisa Schilling, Gillian Power, "Beyond Belief" director Beth Murphy, Sophia Wong Boccio, Dina Yaghmai, Chicago chapter president Marjan Farshchiha and Niamh King. |
|
John Kern and Thomas Grischany attend the documentary screening and discussion at the "Beyond Belief" screening in March at the Sofitel Hotel. |
|
The "Beyond Belief" film event was the biggest fund-raiser so far for the Chicago UNIFEM/USA chapter. Pictured from left are: Sophia Wong Boccio, Jim Stone, director Beth Murphy, Mary Cordero, Louise Kern, Lisa Schilling, Kate Hannigan, Marjan Farshchiha and Dina Yaghmai. |
UNIFEM/USNC Chicago Chapter's
Chocolate for Charity fundraising evening
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Vosges Haut-Chocolat Boutique
951 W Armitage, Chicago, IL
951 W Armitage, Chicago, IL
10% of all sales from the evening supported UNIFEM programming
UNIFEM/USNC Chicago Chapter's
Second Annual Luncheon - December 6, 2007
| Katrin Schultheiss, associate professor of history, and gender and women's studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, was the featured speaker at the UNIFEM/USA Chicago Chapter's second annual luncheon on Dec. 6, 2007. |
| Members (from left) Louise Kern, Sophia Wong Boccio, Mimi Plauche and Lorraine Shoto attended the December luncheon at the Chicago Club in downtown. |
| Vice president of the UNIFEM/USA Chicago chapter Dina Yaghmai (left) and the Chicago chapter's founder and president Marjan Farshchiha welcomed nearly 100 participants to the second annual luncheon. |
| Board members (from left) Niamh King, Marjan Farshchiha, Lisa Schilling, Denise Ferguson and Dina Yaghmai worked behind the scenes to make the luncheon a success. |
Featured Speakers
UNIFEM/USNC, Chicago Chapter's Distinguished Speakers
Professor Katrin Schultheiss
Second Annual Luncheon, Dec. 6, 2007
Professor Katrin Schultheiss teaches courses in the history of modern Europe, women's and gender history, and the history of medicine. Her first book was entitled Bodies and Souls: Politics and the Professionalization of Nursing in France, 1880-1922 (Harvard University Press, 2001), which used nursing as a lens through which to examine the evolution of gendered definitions of citizenship. Currently, she is writing a cultural biography of the Charcots, a prominent French family whose members included one of Europe's first neurologists, France's best known modern polar explorer, and several generations of women artists. The book focuses on the relationship between art and science in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Professor Schultheiss also teachers courses on feminist theory and international women's rights.
Professor Schultheiss' scholarships, fellowships and awards include:
- Faculty Fellow, Institute for the Humanities, University of Illinois at Chicago, 2001-2002
- Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research (UIC) Arts, Architecture and Humanities Faculty Research Grant, 2001
- Fulbright Fellowship, 1991-92
- Krupp Foundation Fellowship, 1992
- Sheldon Fellowship, 1991
- Harvard Center for European Studies Summer Research Grant, 1990
- Harvard Prize Fellowship, 1987-89
- Harvard Danforth Center Award for Excellence in Teaching, 1989
M. Cherif Bassiouni
First Annual Luncheon, Nov. 3, 2006
M. Cherif Bassiouni is a Distinguished Research Professor of Law at DePaul University College of Law and President Emeritus of the International Human Rights Law Institute. He is also President of the International Institute of Higher Studies in Criminal Sciences in Siracusa, Italy, as well as the Honorary President of the International Association of Penal Law (President 1989-2004), based in Paris, France.
He has served the United Nations in a number of capacities, including as: Member and then Chairman of the Security Council's Commission to Investigate War Crimes in the Former Yugoslavia (1992-94); Commission on Human Rights' Independent Expert on The Rights to Restitution, Compensation and Rehabilitation for Victims of Grave Violations of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (1998-2000); Vice-Chairman of the General Assembly's Ad Hoc Committee on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court (1995); and Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the 1998 Diplomatic Conference on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court. In 2004, he was appointed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights as the Independent Expert on the Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan.
In 1999, Professor Bassiouni was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in the field of international criminal justice and for his contribution to the creation of the International Criminal Court.
He has received the following medals:
- Grand Cross of the Order of Merit (Commander), Federal Republic of Germany (2003)
- Legion d'Honneur (Officier), Republic of France (2003)
- Order of Lincoln of Illinois, United States of America (2001)
- Grand Cross of the Order of Merit, Republic of Austria (1990)
- Order of Sciences (First Class), Arab Republic of Egypt (1984)
- Order of Merit (Grand'Ufficiale), Republic of Italy (1977)
- Order of Military Valor (First Class), Arab Republic of Egypt (1956)
He has also received numerous academic and civic awards, including:
- The Saint Vincent DePaul Humanitarian Award (2000)
- Defender of Democracy Award, Parliamentarians for Global Action (1998)
- The Adlai Stevenson Award of the United Nations Association (1993)
- Special Award of the Council of Europe (1990)
Professor Bassiouni is the author of 27 books and editor of 44 books, and the author of 217 articles on a wide range of legal issues, including international criminal law, comparative criminal law and international human rights law. His publications have appeared in Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, French, Georgian, German, Hungarian, Italian and Spanish. Some of these publications have been cited by the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), the United States Supreme Court, as well as by several United States Appellate and Federal District Courts, and also by several State Supreme Courts.
Supporting the Safe Cities Program
The United States National Committee for UNIFEM, Chicago Chapter, joins UNIFEM/USNC and other UNIFEM/USNC chapters around the country in focusing our attention and fund-raising goals in support of the Safe Cities Program to end gender-based violence in Latin America.
The program's intent is to strengthen women's citizenship rights in order to reduce public and private gender-based violence, as well as increase women's safety and security in Latin American cities.
Click here to find out what events are happening in Chicago.
About Us
The U.S. National Committee for UN Women, Chicago Chapter, was founded in November 2006 with the goal of becoming involved in critical UN Women projects worldwide like establishing women's centers in Afghanistan and ensuring women's participation in negotiations on the Darfur conflict.
Committed to raising awareness and funds through Chicago-based events and partnerships with local businesses, the Chicago Chapter actively supports UN Women's mission to
- Reduce feminized poverty
- End violence against women
- Halt the spread of HIV/AIDS among women and girls
- Achieve gender equality in democratic governance
And if you decide to become a U.S. National Committee for UN Women member, you will be making both a contribution and a connection to women around the world, supporting crucial programs in countries where women's voices are silenced.